Professional Services Heat East Lothian

Date – Thursday 16th March

Supporting Industry Partner

Companies we have involved:

Business Fours tees off in unified spirit

Scotland’s golf coast is one of the gems of East Lothian and action for Scotland’s national business golf tournament got underway at the stunning Craigielaw golf club. Players from Edinburgh’s Professional Services sector gathered in the new clubhouse which offers panoramic views over the Firth of Forth towards Fife.

The heat was supported by the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and Marketing Manager, Emma Reid and Account Manager, Alice Beeby got into the spirit of the day by donning some traditional golf gear, a pair of Royal & Awesome tartan troos. The competition itself was played in a friendly spirit with all the teams enjoying the day in a relaxed atmosphere.

In what was the inaugural Business Fours professional firms took part from a range of sectors from banking represented by companies like RBS and Hampden & Co to law firms being represented by Turcan Connell and Anderson Strathern. The tournament aims to integrate professionals together, a formula that was embraced by the sector. In an intimate and exclusive setting teams came with the view to meeting like-minded professionals in a relaxed environment.

The Yard Scotland are charity partners for the Links season of Business Fours, a partnership born through the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce networking events. The day served as a great platform for the East of Scotland-based adventure play centre for kids with complex needs to raise their profile. Business Fours has made a company commitment to donating ten percent of proceeds to charity and for the West of Scotland heats is also working with Beatson Cancer Charity as a charity partner.

Play got under way blue skies which finally give way to greyer clouds around the turn. With the Craigielaw course in brilliant condition for this time of year play continued undisrupted even if the scorecards did take a beating on the back 9 due to the tough conditions.

The format for the day was a Stableford competition with a few individual prizes up for grabs. The main twist on the course was the addition of the yellow ball that reflected the distinctive branding of charity partner, the Yard Scotland, with 4 double scoring points on the course, provided players didn’t lose their balls.

Brewin Dolphin Director, Johnny McGlynn’s long putt on the 18th was enough to see him lift the accolade for the Longest Putt competition. Another winner from Brewin Dolphin, Assistant Director, Ross MacNish saw his booming drive land beyond the fairway and on the green of the 393-yard par 4 fifth hole, even downwind this was a massive drive and thankfully he did manage to walk off with a birdie.

Business development manager, Murdo McHardy from Scotland’s newest bank, Hampden & Co, beat off stiff competition to get within Turcan Connel’s Andrew Ross’s fine approach to the par 3 17th hole to claim the Nearest the Pin prize. Anderson Strathern’s, Robin Turnbull hit a brilliant shot into the 3rd hole to pip Frank Hoskins of Hampden & Co to stop the banks’ clean sweep of the nearest the pin trophies.

To encourage integration and networking individuals from each company were paired off with players from other teams to spark off relationships with the common ground of golf. For the purposes of qualifying for the national final companies were scoring alongside their colleagues with the 4 scores from each team combining to determine the eventual overall winners.

The Edinburgh Airport team were one of the eventual qualifiers helped largely by 3 Stableford scores in the high 30’s from Bryan Weir, Gregor Fraser and Nick Gilmore. For law firm Anderson Strathern it was 2 particularly good scores from Daniel Ferguson and Robin Turnbull that helped them qualify for the national final and maintain a proud history in the Business Fives family of events by reaching every final so far across football and golf.

It was steady scoring from all four members of the Turcan Connell team that saw them qualify, with Andrew Ross, Scott Hunter, Callum Townsend and Gareth Hall all scoring in the 30’s.

It was the Brewin Dolphin team who ran out eventual winners thanks to a team effort from the quartet of wealth managers. As winners, they will wear their Royal & Awesome trousers with pride come finals day on 24th May at St Andrews Fairmont.

Importantly it was the Yard Scotland who went away with the generous charitable donations for the charity raffle, won by Jamie Boyd which was probably a fair reward for the 40 points he scored on the course. Winning a fourball at Trump Turnberry which was kindly donated by the course.

With 3 more qualifying heats to come the action concludes at St Andrews Fairmont on May 24th with the national final to determine Scotland’s national business golf champions 2017. The action continues next week with our Professional Services heat in Glasgow before the Construction, Housing & Property and Technology & IT sectors meet in April.

Reason for getting involved in Business Fours: To develop connections with Corporate Advisers

Johnny McGlynn – Divisional Director

Handicap: 5

Home Club: Bruntsfield

Favourite Golf course: Muirfield

Reason for getting involved in Business Fours: Meet people in right environment

Jamie Boyd – Divisional Director

Handicap: 12

Home Club: Muirfield

Favourite Golfing Memory: Hitting the fairway on the 1st hole during my first ever round at St Andrews last summer!

Favourite Golf course: Boat of Garten

Reason for getting involved in Business Fours: Meet new people

Marc Wilkinson – Regional Managing Director

Handicap: 16

Home Club: Luffness New

Favourite Golfing Memory: Breaking 80 on the old.

Favourite Golf course: Old Course

Reason for getting involved in Business Fours: Meet people in right environment

Player Profiles

Daniel Ferguson, Paralegal

Handicap: 18

Home Club: Prestonfield Golf Club

Favourite Golfing Memory: Attending St Andrews in 2000 to see Tiger Woods win The Open

Favourite Golf course: La Manga, Spain

Reason for getting involved in Business Fours: Good opportunity to link up with new contacts.

David Coutts, Senior Solicitor

Handicap: 10

Home Club: Craigmillar Park GC

Favourite Golfing Memory: my friend Joseph Galloway declaring in frustration as the ball left the tee “that’s not what you meant to do, Joe!”, only for the ball to go straight in the hole for his first ace.

Favourite Golf course: Augusta – I’d sell my right arm to play there, or even just to play Amen Corner!

Reason for getting involved in Business Fours: my Business 5s career ended and, as sport is the best form of BD, the Business 4s seemed the perfect way to generate new likeminded contacts